Biafra: the North is abundantly blessed with the potentials to exist independently.

By Bashir Mohammed Kano

Chairman, Coalition of Northern Groups, Alhaji Nastura Ashir Sherif, has said the Coalition was looking at the issue of the muchpronounced Biafran agitation beyond quit notice, adding that the North was on the road to perdition “if certain crucial issues are not addressed in earnest.” Speaking at a meeting organised for members of the Coalition to brainstorm on the way forward in Kano yesterday, Sherif said those agitating for a separate entity had failed to “realise the futility of their action, forgetting that the North is abundantly blessed with the potentials to exist independently.”

Sherif said the issue of unemployment among the youth in the North must be addressed before any sustainable development could take shape, adding that the region had had enough of the atrocities of the perpetrators of the Boko Haraminsurgency “which must all be addressed to avoid a repeat of such a bad episode in the future.” He said the Northern region was also groaning under the “fangs of systematic psychological onslaught instilled by the syndrome of wanton drug abuse among youths which have been stagedmanaged by those who were hellbent on destroying the potentials the Northern youth.” He noted that the creation of awareness had also become expedient for youths in the North to “discern their relevance in shaping their destinies in addition to putting their heads together to salvage the region from the brink of economic hardship and backwardness.” According to him, once such crucial issues are properly addressed, the future of the North would be bright and promising. Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Ambassador Shettima Yarima, said it was a matter of choice for the Biafra agitators to opt to remain under one indivisible entity or quit at their own volition, stressing that the Coalition of the Northern Groups would not coerce anyone to go away against his or her popular wish.